NRL gives Nine ratings edge on quiet night where ABC’s Jack Irish was top non-news show

Nine’s new regular Thursday night NRL match has seen a traditionally quiet night for TV audiences get quieter as rivals shy away from putting top programming against it.

In a quiet night in which no program broke the 1m audience mark, the ABC’s Jack Irish was the most-watched non-news program, pulling in 673,000 metro viewers at 8.30pm, up on last week’s audience of 617,000.

Nine won the night thanks to a strong performance by its news hour and a decent showing for its live NRL match in Sydney and Brisbane, grabbing an audience share of 21.7%, ahead of Seven’s share of 17%. The ABC claimed third place with a share of 13.5% as Ten settled for a share of 13.1%.

The NRL clash between North Queensland Cowboys and the Roosters managed 433,000 viewers on Nine, while The AFL Footy Show had 367,000 viewers in the other markets.